Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

It’s Thursday and these are the gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

This week, the Epic Store gives away two games:

• Keylocker | Turn Based Cyberpunk Action: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/keylocker-622bcc
• Pilgrims: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/pilgrims-6d250f

Next week, the free games will be 112 Operator and Road Redemption.

GOG has three new promos:

• We have new Weekly Deals, with up to 95% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250731_weekly_deals_1_august
• The Genre Bender Promo also has games up to 95% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250731_genre_bender_promo
• And the Story Rich Promo has, once again, up to 95% discounts, but this time during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250731_story_rich_promo

Steam has three new deals and 2 sales:

• The Early Access title Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander , that has a demo, will be 30% off until the 13th of August: https://store.steampowered.com/app/799600/Cosmoteer_Starship_Architect__Commander
• Isles of Sea and Sky has a 66% discount until the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1233070/Isles_of_Sea_and_Sky
• Scanner Sombre is going to be 70% off until August 13: https://store.steampowered.com/app/475190/Scanner_Sombre
• And these are the sales:
  • Capcom’s Mid-Summer Sale features up to 67% discounts until August, the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33273264/sale/Mid-Summer
  • QuakeCon 2025 Sale has games up to 85% off until the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/quakecon2025

Fanatical has launched the new BYO Co-op Bundle, with 13 games to choose from for your 3+, 5+ or 7+ bundles during 34 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-co-op-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam has a razzle-dazzle new video player that's actually usable, but press F for the unlucky Valve employees who had to re-encode all 400,000+ trailers on the platform
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/steam-has-a-razzle-dazzle-new-video-player-thats-actually-usable-but-press-f-for-the-unlucky-valve-employees-who-had-to-re-encode-all-400-000-trailers-on-the-platform/
If you're anything like me, Steam's trailer function has been—for its entire lifespan—pretty much useless. Maybe I'm just cursed, but in my experience the player is laggy, impossible to scrub through, and prone to random hitches and quality issues. It means the trailer is just something of which I see about 0.5 seconds before I click off of it and onto a game's screenshots.
But no more. As of yesterday, Steam's trailer player has gotten a new lick of paint and seems actually useful now. In a post on the Steam news blog, Valve announced that someone had wheeled their desk over to the right section of the office long enough to overhaul the whole thing. They even re-encoded literally every trailer on Steam to do it—over 400,000 files.
The player now has a new interface, an adaptable UI that should work on whichever screen you do your trailer-viewing on (Valve says excitedly, "It even works well on iPhones now"), and "fewer pauses and hitches when jumping forward or backward in a video," which was my key bugbear with ye olde player. "You will also see seamless transitions when pressing that full-screen button," says Valve.

NVIDIA Releases GeForce 580.88 WHQL Game Ready Drivers
https://www.techpowerup.com/339459/nvidia-releases-geforce-580-88-whql-game-ready-drivers

Highlights
Game Ready

• Mafia: The Old Country
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (DLSS 4)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (DLSS 4)

Support Plan For Maxwell, Pascal & Volta Architecture GPUs, and Windows 10

• After a final Game Ready Driver release in October 2025, GeForce GPUs based on Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures will transition to receiving quarterly security updates for the next three years (through October 2028). Our support lifetime for these GPUs reaches up to 11 years, well beyond industry norms.
• Also, we're extending Windows 10 Game Ready Driver support for all GeForce RTX GPUs to October 2026, a year beyond the operating system's end-of-life, to ensure users continue to receive the latest day-0 optimizations for new games and apps.

G-Sync Monitor Support
***There’s too many of them. Check them out by yourselves***

Fixed Issues
Fixed Gaming Issues

• World of Warcraft: displays artifacts when ray tracing is enabled [5273429]
• Battlefield 2042: random square artifacts may appear around lights during gameplay [5284105]
• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered: Lower performance after updating to R575 drivers [5412725]
• Starcraft Remastered: Objects may display slight artifacts [5162957]
• Cyberpunk 2077: Micro-stutter may be observed when VSYNC is enabled [5243668]
• JX Online 3: Artifacts may appear on the water surface [5247344]
• 32-bit games crash when using DXVK translation layer during startup [5252103]
• Control: game may crash when ray tracing is enabled [5261356]
• ABZU: Corruption observed in the water [5330078]
• EA Sports FC 25: General stability issues [5331630]
• Dirt 5: Game crash on startup [5349426]

Fixed General Bugs

• Blender: Black dots on reference image [5339988]
• Cloudflare WARP: Display mode change blocked on Advanced Optimus systems [5368524]
• GPU scaling option is missing from NVIDIA Control Panel / NVIDIA App when DSC monitor connected [5156168]
• Windows Photos: Trimming a video may cause the colors to be changed [5158063]
• GPU video memory runs at slightly lower speed after enabling NVIDIA Smooth Motion [5370796]
• For some systems running hybrid graphics mode, dGPU may not go to sleep [5232857]
• Samsung 57" Odyssey Neo G9: Momentary flicker may be observed when resizing window [5243530]
• LGE 27GX790A-B: Blank screens when running in DisplayPort 2.1 mode with HDR [5334029]

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Castlemania II is a Castlevania-themed Super Mario game that you can play on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/castlemania-ii-is-a-castlevania-themed-super-mario-game-that-you-can-play-on-pc
Super Mario fans, here’s something cool for you. modder ‘xMANGRAVYx’ has made an awesome romhack for Super Mario World. It mixes Super Mario Bros. with Castlevania. It’s a fun and exciting Mario game that you can play on your PC. Well, you’ll need a SNES emulator to do this but still.
Castlemania II has new power-ups, cutscenes, and custom bosses that were never in Super Mario World before. The goal of this sequel was to improve on the original game and add cool new features. Each level is split into parts and ends with a boss fight, just like in the classic Castlevania games that inspired it. Some bosses can’t be hurt by power-ups, so the battles stay fun and challenging.
As you’ll see in the video at the end of the article, Castlemania II is much harder than regular Super Mario games. So, get ready to lose a lot of lives. It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely more challenging than the original games. So, consider this your warning. This will put your skills and reflexes to the test.
You can go ahead and download Castlemania II from this link. Since this is a romhack, it requires the original Super Mario World. Once you have downloaded it, you’ll have to apply the romhack to the ROM file. You can do this with a tool like Flips or Beat. Alternatively, you can use an emulator that allows you to apply the romhack on the fly.
>> The article has a 10 minutes video.

Half-Life 2 Fan Remaster will soon get a free playable demo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/half-life-2-fan-remaster-will-soon-get-a-free-playable-demo
Modder ‘GameROOSH’ is currently working on a remaster of Half-Life 2 on the Source 2013 Engine. This fan remaster will have improved graphics and physics, and we’ll soon get a demo for it.
The remaster is called Half-Life 2: Remake and promises some cool upgrades. It will have realistic bullet physics and breakable objects, like in the Battlefield games. Shadows will change in real-time as you play, thanks to Cascade Shadow Maps. You can also look forward to moving sky effects that make the game feel even more alive.
The demo for Half-Life 2: Remake will most likely focus on the Lost Coast Demo. This was the demo that Valve also released to showcase the capabilities of the Source Engine for Half-Life 2. So, to avoid ruining the first hours of the game, the modder will most likely remaster that demo.
There is currently no ETA on when this demo will come out. Naturally, though, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
>> The article has some screenshots of the mod, that is still in alpha.

This incredible Oblivion Remastered Mod lets you destroy buildings
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-incredible-oblivion-remastered-mod-lets-you-destroy-buildings
Oblivion Remastered fans, here is a must-have mod for you. Created by ‘MadAborModding’, this mod lets you destroy almost all of the game’s buildings with your spells.
To showcase these destruction effects, the modder shared the following two GIFs. And, as you will see, it looks absolutely fantastic. This is a mod that will greatly enhance your gaming experience. So, make sure to get it.
Right now, the effects are not permanent. This means that everything will reset to normal as soon as you enter a load screen. This may break overall immersion. And despite that, it still is a really cool mod. At least in my opinion.
In future versions, the modder plans to expand this to make buildings have their own health stat, with a visible health bar that appears on hit. Additionally, you will be able to damage structures with both physical attacks and spells. The damage dealt will scale with your respective skill levels. Optionally, he plans to limit the ability to destroy structures to only certain locations.

GAMING NEWS

Leaked Battlefield 6 Trailer Confirms October 10 Release Date
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/leaked-battlefield-6-trailer-confirms-october-10-release-date
It appears that a short gameplay trailer for Battlefield 6 has been leaked, which reveals the game’s release date. This new BF game will come out on October 10th. And, since this is a leaked trailer, you can be sure that EA will take it down in the blink of an eye. So, watch it while you still can.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is coming to PC in 2026
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/monster-hunter-stories-3-twisted-reflection-is-coming-to-pc-in-2026
Capcom has just announced the next part in its Monster Hunter Stories series, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection will be coming to PC in 2026, and below you can find its debut trailer.

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is coming to PC on October 23
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/plants-vs-zombies-replanted-is-coming-to-pc-on-october-23
Electronic Arts and PopCap Studios have announced the return of the iconic original strategy game with Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted. The fan favorite backyard brawler is coming to PC on October 23rd, and below you can find its debut gameplay trailer.

Cronos: The New Dawn will be released on September 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cronos-the-new-dawn-will-be-released-on-september-5
Bloober Team has just announced that its new third-person horror game, Cronos: The New Dawn, will be released on September 5th. To celebrate this announcement, the team has also shared a new trailer that you can find below.

Here are 12 minutes of gameplay from Titan Quest 2 Early Access
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-12-minutes-of-gameplay-from-titan-quest-2-early-access
THQ Nordic has shared a new 12-minute gameplay video for Titan Quest 2. This video shows what the game will look like in Early Access. The publisher also said that the release date for Early Access will be announced tomorrow during the THQN Showcase event.